The Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)
Beeldenstorm-"it looked like a hell, where were above 10000 torches burning"
In 2009, the City of Antwerp, Belgium, commissioned and implemented a comprehensive lighting master plan to light its most important monument, the Cathedral of Our Lady which is considered the most relevant and perfect expression of Brabantine Gothic style. 1
The Cathedral’s history includes the iconoclastic fury—the beeldenstorm of August 21-22, 1566 when rioters broke into the Cathedral and destroyed every image they could find.2
about six of the clock, they broke up the choir, and went and visited all the books, whereof as it is said, some they saved, and the rest utterly destroyed and broke…it looked like a hell, where were above 10000 torches burning3
An inflammatory sermon on 10 August 1566 in Flanders led some of the congregation to attack religious images, paintings, and other liturgical items at the religious house of Saint Laurent. This was the start of the iconoclastic fury, which spread through Flanders and across the Habsburg Netherlands. Ten days later, the churches and religious establishments in Antwerp were sacked.4
The rioters destroyed every image they could find, whether the polyptychs on the altars, pictures and sculptures on the walls, stained glass windows, or even illustrations in books. They tossed prayerbooks on the fires, ripped embroideries from the chasubles and copes, and attacked priests associated with this idolatrous cult. The vigor and violence of this episode are extreme symptoms of the many ways in which theological motives drew on the underlying fears codified, so to speak, in the mysterious cult of images, to which, in Protestant eyes, the Catholic use and worship of images so vividly and all too seductively testified.5
The restoration and subsequent destruction and rebuilding of the Cathedral of Our Lady has been the topic of many books and articles.6
Murrye, Bernard (Aug. 27, 2019). 2019 AL DESIGN AWARDS Cathedral of Our Lady and Its Surroundings. Architect.
Alistair Duke, “Calvinists and Papist Idolatry: the Mentality of the Image-breakers in 1566,” in Dissident identities in the early modern Low Countries, ed. Pollman and Spicer (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2009).
Clough, Richard to Thomas Gresham (August 21-23 1566). Eye-witness Account of Image-breaking at Antwerp, Universiteit Leiden.
Spicer, Andrew. “Iconoclasm.” Renaissance Quarterly 70, no. 3 (2017): 1007–22.
Freedberg, David. “The Fear of Art: How Censorship Becomes Iconoclasm.” Social Research 83, no. 1 (2016): 67–99.
Rynck, Patrick , and Fiona Elliott. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. Ghent: Ludion, 2005; The Restoration of the Cathedral of Our Lady at Antwerp. Antwerp: Executive Board of the Province of Antwerp, 1993; Pooter, Herman , and A . Belder. Our Lady's Cathedral, Antwerp. Cathedral Church-Fabric D , 1988.
We’re living in these times again. Hence your Substack, serving as a reminder none of this is new.
I knew nothing of this. My first visit to Antwerpen was in 1995, touring Europe interviewing employees and executives of disparate firms owned by a global conglomerate that was a client. Three days earlier the main train station in Brussels had burned and the country's control system for rail traffic was destroyed; there was no backup. I took the train from Brussels to Antwerpen, normally a 35 minute trip. It took three hours.
As I was waiting in the station that evening for my train to Amsterdam, I learned that trains were on whatever track was available at the time of their arrival, with no central information board for updates. Announcements were made from loudspeakers more than 35 meters overhead, and only in Flemish. As you know, Belgium is funny about language. It's the only country in Europe where announcements are made only in the local language, Flemish or French. I understand written and spoken French; I can read Flemish, but do not understand it when spoken.
I latched on to a lovely young lady from Croatia who understood spoken Flemish. She translated for me into German. We spent hours rushing from track to track hoping to catch the train to Amsterdam. It arrived hours late. We boarded, and took half of forever to reach the Netherlands border. About ten kilometers into the Netherlands, we stopped, were told - in Nederlands, French, English, German and Italian - to get on a Nederlands train, which delivered us to downtown Amsterdam just before sunrise.
Thank you for posting this, My awareness of my ignorance has grown yet again.